Chinese firm invests in Argentine gold mine

JINAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Shandong Gold Mining will pay 960 million U.S. dollars to Barrick Gold Corp. for a 50 percent stake in its Veladero gold mine in Argentina.

The agreement was inked Thursday in Jinan, capital of Shandong Province in east China.

This is the first cooperation between the two mining giants, according to a press release by Shandong Gold.

The next step is that the two will establish a working group to conduct research on the EL Indio gold belt, including the Pascua-Lama project, according to the release. The gold belt spans the border between Chile and Argentina.

Shandong Gold is one of China's main gold producers. Thursday's agreement was a "concrete advance" toward international expansion, said the release.

Barrick Gold is the world's largest gold mining company and one of Canada's leading global corporations. The company said in its press release that the transaction is expected to close at the end of the second quarter, and is subject to regulatory and other approvals.

Upon completion of the transaction, Veladero mine will be overseen by a joint venture board consisting of three nominees appointed by each company. In order to ensure continuity of operations, both companies intend to maintain the mine's current management team, according to the press release by Barrick Gold.